Absolutely. I've seen many a beginning pilot sit there and try to figure out all of the bells and whistles of their radio while learning to fly. In my opinion the best thing for a student to learn to fly on is a bare bones 4 channel basic radio. I say this because then the student learns to actually fly the plane like they should be doing, instead of using fancy mixes and computer help. Now with that being said, if a student can buy a computer radio and leave all the "fancy gadgets" alone then they will be just fine. But a student should never ever do anything on their radio while training without letting their instructor know what they did. Trust me on this one, this is a biggie. I've seen a student mess around with his radio and not tell the instructor about it, and then when the instructor tried to fly the plane he couldn't control it and lost the plane. So if you get a computer radio, just stick to the basics while you are learning.

As for the Spektrum radio. It may have another name, but it's a JR radio. From what I have seen a JR buddy box setup will work on the Spektrum radio setups.

Hope this helps

Ken